Drudge Fabricates Obama Call For Industry Bailouts

The Drudge Report has deceptively edited President Obama's words to falsely suggest that Obama proposed additional bailouts or government control of private industry at a campaign event today in Colorado. In fact, Obama was promoting proposals to keep jobs in the United States, rather than outsource them -- not advocating government funded bailouts. Drudge's actions are in line with a recent[1] conservative media pattern[2] of distorting Obama's quotes.

Drudge pairs a picture of Obama with the headline "Let's Repeat Auto Bailout 'With Every Industry'."

But Obama's actual comments make clear that he was calling for the restoration of manufacturing jobs "not just in the auto industry, but in every industry." He proposed to do this not through government bailouts, but by using tax breaks and other incentives to reward employers for keeping jobs in America, rather than outsourcing them.

THE PRESIDENT: When all of us share in prosperity, we all do better. (Applause.) That's the choice in this election. That's why I'm running for President -- because I believe we're all in this together. (Applause.)

We've got a bunch of examples of the differences, the choice in this election. When the American auto industry was on the brink of collapse, more than 1 million jobs at stake, Governor Romney said, let's "let Detroit go bankrupt."

AUDIENCE: Booo --

THE PRESIDENT: I said I believe in American workers, I believe in this American industry, and now the American auto industry has come roaring back and GM is number one again. (Applause.) So now I want to do the same thing with manufacturing jobs not just in the auto industry, but in every industry. I don't want those jobs taking root in places like China. I want them taking root in places like Pueblo. (Applause.)

Governor Romney brags about his private sector experience, but it was mostly investing in companies, some of which were called "pioneers" of outsourcing. I don't want to be a pioneer of outsourcing. I want to insource. I want to stop giving tax breaks to companies that are shipping jobs overseas; let's give those tax breaks to companies that are investing here in the United States of America, making American products with American workers and selling them around the world. That's why I'm running for a second term. (Applause.)

The source of the falsehood appears to be a Politico story[4] recapping Obama's speech which was later updated and had the following note attached: "Clarification: This post was updated to reflect the president's intent to express his support for manufacturing success. An earlier version was unclear about his intent."

Even after Politico updated their story, the Drudge Report used the following image and text to link to it: